Chapter 172: The Third Force (7)
Eve’s reason for existence, determined by herself, was endless gluttony and growth, and she had run only for that until now.
A being that devours anything and makes it its own, but there was something that such a being couldn’t bring itself to possess.
“You must contain something beyond intense emotions. I still don’t quite understand, but my master said that it is the same as reaching a realm.”
In the past, Ji Chang-hyun, who was teaching me the basics of swordsmanship, once said the same thing. It wasn’t just about wielding a weapon.
A sword swung with mere strength cannot create miracles. Back then, I didn’t think that the hint I saw vaguely was a false story.
“Is it all that I have? Just an instinct for slaughter?”
Eve ground her teeth. It wasn’t just the human avatar beside me who felt this way. Every legion spread throughout the universe was enraged.
It seemed unbearable to accept the fact that it was a power that could not be gained through overwhelming physical force or exploding formancy.
“Calm down, Eve.”
“Right. I have never forgotten my purpose for even a moment. Slaughter! And war! Although it’s just a means, it was undoubtedly the most efficient way to achieve my goals.”
With fierce determination, Eve moved her troops with all her might. The destination was Lattice, currently under attack.
Hundreds of thousands of gates opened, and legionnaires stationed on other planets poured into that location.
“Did I… make a mistake? Struggles and battles have been my everything up until now. I’m not attacking a barren planet for no reason; I am attacking a planet where humans live. I must fight. I must struggle and evolve through it.”
“…No. If that is your true self, then you haven’t done anything wrong.”
I wiped the tears of Eve, who was unable to suppress her self-loathing.
After venturing into space, Eve realized something, but the option of quietly consuming the abandoned planets and calmly gathering strength was never seriously considered from the start.
Such barren planets were less efficient in extracting planetary energy, but it was also because of Eve’s nature.
Eve was fundamentally based on imitation and theft rather than creation and making. She preferred to engage in intense wars with equals or superiors rather than steadily and gradually advance.
The reason was simple. That was the foundation of her existence, ‘Eve,’ which had developed up until now, and her very self.
My gaze sank. Was Eve, who others saw as a slaughtering monster, always meant to be this way, or was it the process that shaped her like this?
[You have no reason to blame yourself. Up until now, you have only chosen the best options among the choices available to you.]
Letters flickered in my eyes as I embraced Eve.
However, I couldn’t tell if this was truly the best outcome.
If I had rejected unification with Eve and succeeded in the tightrope walk of pushing and pulling until the end, or had I taught her my own values from the very beginning and suppressed her essence?
[What meaning is there in regretting now?]
“Who knows. The next iteration of me might make a different choice.”
[…]
“Did you think I wouldn’t know? I thought that anything was possible for you.”
I smiled faintly at the letters that vanished, seemingly stuck for words.
“I understand. It seems like you have quite a few constraints yourself.”
[Stop with the assumptions.]
“There’s really no need to deny it.”
It had been a while since I vaguely noticed that the cycle was repeating. It was not at all difficult to act like I was aware of it.
“Turning back time? Is that even possible?”
Eve, busy with war, showed interest in the topic.
[…It’s a completely meaningless story. Even if it’s true, what use is it to you? If the cycle resets, you will disappear. Eve, you will be a mass of cells in the deepest part of the labyrinth again, and Kang Shin Woo, you will become an ordinary college student who knows nothing.]
“If repeating is true, what could the reason be?”
“Perhaps unsatisfactory outcomes for themselves? They pretended it was a fair game, but it was all according to their whims.”
Eve and I ignored each other and continued speaking. What mattered was the reason for the reset, as Eve stated.
And I refrained from voicing the suspicion that the instigator might be Eve herself.
[Just keep doing what you’re doing now. Some will become gluttons devouring stars, trying to turn the entire universe against them, while some will become cancer cells to maintain that balance. That will suffice.]
“Hah! Do you think I’ll follow your orders so willingly?!”
Eve scoffed and boldly declared while looking at the empty air.
[If you dislike that, you can simply surrender in the war raging in the Lattice. But you can’t do that, can you?]
“Ugh…”
But she couldn’t rebut that either. Eve, flustered, huffed, but after that, she couldn’t really counter.
“Is the situation that bad? It looks intense.”
“That can’t be true. If it turns into a war of attrition, I will win.”
We changed the subject. It was pointless to get angry at a systematic being that could not be touched or predicted.
Eve boasted that she would achieve victory in the war using her strengths, but to me, it already seemed like Eve was halfway to losing.
“If the enemy is strong, then that’s even better.”
The ability to quickly imitate the enemy’s strengths was indeed a cheat-like characteristic. As the battle continued, the opponent would always fall behind us, who had evolved accordingly.
[Can you imitate?]
But the fundamental issue was this: could Eve truly learn the enemy’s strengths?
*
“Already the twelfth…!”
“It works! Cutting down the trees quickly eradicates their nests!”
Fierce battles were erupting in the sky, outer space, and on this land. In order to confront the medium to large-sized legionnaires, the majority of the ground forces, specially organized as armored units, were pouring firepower toward the legionnaires charging with the Gaisan warriors, who could break the defense made of formancy and cut down the sacred tree.
“There’s an effect, but we will probably have to retreat soon. There are too many of them. There are tens of millions of them coming now.”
“…They still haven’t shown up.”
Gar sighed in front of the broken sacred tree and lowered the blazing axe.
He had already taken down a dozen upper-tier species and destroyed over six sacred trees. But they had to retreat now. Just as Eve had predicted, in a war of attrition, the allied forces would be at an absolute disadvantage.
Neither ammunition nor Gar’s fighting spirit was limitless.
“I hope the damage dealt will have an effect. No, there should definitely be an effect. Everyone will know that these overwhelming monsters, who seemed to exist only for war, are ultimately imperfect beings.”
The sergeant who had fought alongside him from beginning to end tried to smile, even with a pale face due to exhaustion.
“You’re right, comrade. This fight isn’t everything.”
Despite achieving great results, Gar still felt uneasy, but he could manage to smile a little upon hearing those words.
However, just when they were trying to slowly withdraw to a safe area in accordance with that pace.
“What is this!”
“Uh…”
Sensing something, Gar twisted his body instantly, but it was already too late.
A single thrown spear pierced through the body of the sergeant beside him, impaling him to the ground with an explosion.
Gar’s eyes widened as he recognized the figure who had thrown the spear.
Standing atop a colossal species and surrounded by magic circles, the being was pointing at this place, its red eyes shining from within the mask while long black hair fluttered behind it.
‘This time, I will prove it. My power, my instinct, my emotions! That they do not waver against the pathetic mindset of such beings.’
Eve, having thrown a spear reinforced by magic, now held a blood-red gleaming sword.
This time Eve changed her course.
She acknowledged that she couldn’t possess the strength they had at that moment. Indeed, she didn’t want to.
Thus, she chose to prove it in her own way.
At this moment, she would demonstrate that what she learned and took from others is not as strong as the path she has forged herself.
“This fool!!”
Gar, fueling up with revenge boiling inside, would not refuse that challenge.
In the battlefield where allied forces and legionnaires were chaotically clashing, where nuclear explosions lit up the sky and damaged ships were crashing down, the gigantic barbarian warrior and the monster clad in black armor swung their axes and swords at each other, filled with their respective fury.
